Journalism

COM JO 718: Magazine WorkshopGraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721; students should be familiar with Microsoft Word or comparable program.
This capstone magazine writing course is designed to create a published magazine as a writing portfolio for students. This is a studio course, taught by two professors, that covers writing and design in a setting that captures the dynamics of professional practice. Working in groups, students assume professional positions and conceptualize, write, edit, design, and publish magazines. Magazines are designed and published using required Adobe Creative applications. Design concepts and techniques, along with computer programs used in this course, are taught with step-by-step instructions. 4 cr 2nd sem

COM JO 719: Feature WritingGraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721.
In this course, students are invited to go beyond the demands of hard-news writing and to explore a much broader range of topics and a richer array of approaches. The essence of feature writing is "enterprise" -- feature stories are those that do not have to happen and cannot be written by formula; individual journalists make them happen. Through readings and by reporting and writing their own features, students develop a sophisticated sense of stories and a stylish prose technique. Emphasis is on telling great stories at various lengths and in different formats. 4 cr.

COM JO 721: Intro to Reporting
Required of all journalism grad students. Students learn newswriting and reporting by covering a full range of news stories in a newsroom environment. This foundation course emphasizes stress on deadline pressure, writing, and reporting for all media. Includes weekly discussion of journalism principles as illustrated by current events and controversies. 4 cr., Fall sem.

COM JO 722: Advanced Journalism SeminarGraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721.
Required of journalism grad students in all specializations other than broadcast, photo, and science. Using the city as our subject, students cover working "beats" in Boston and surrounding areas. Students are responsible for proposing and covering stories dealing with courts, crime, education, local and state politics, and other essentials of community reporting across all media. Stories may appear in the BU News Service or in professional news outlets. 4 cr., Spring sem.

COM JO 723: Science Newswriting I
Students develop experience in writing about science, technology, and medicine for the consumer press. At instructor's option, students may write scripts for broadcast and/or articles for publication in scientific, professional, or business magazines and periodicals.

COM JO 724: Science in the Crosshairs
This course guides students toward writing short, pithy features and reports on issues of scientific controversy, introducing students to the technical basics of short form narrative, while also taking a hard look at a number of scientific issues. Also a refresher unit on statistics and one on the politics of scientific journals. The focus will be on learning to think, report, research and write as a journalist while at the same time building a sound understanding of some of the most critical issues of our day. Students will be expected to produce four pieces of writing- ranging from brief expository pieces to a fully formed profile.

COM JO 732: Conflict and Commentary in Science Reporting
A course in writing about science policy issues, including in-depth coverage of controversial issues and writing scientific-related essay, such as those that appear in Slate and Salon. classroom discussions will involve complex areas of science reporting, including scientific fraud and business issues related to science.

COM JO 733: Video Enterprise ReportingGraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 707 and COM JO 711.
Students will produce in-depth, original video reports similar to those seen on network TV news magazine programs, news web sites or local television series. Course includes a review of job trends in the industry and instruction in how to produce a resume/reel website. 4 cr., Spring sem.

COM JO 734: TV NewsroomGraduate Prerequisites: COM JO 721 ; COM JO 707 ; COM JO 711.
Students produce a weekly half-hour newscast, broadcast on cable TV and the Internet, with live coverage and video reports on local, national and international news as well as sports highlights and weather. Students rotate positions weekly, using television studios and the control booth, collaborating to broadcast a fresh, informative and accurate newscast while facing the daily deadlines of a working newsroom. 4 cr., Spring sem.

COM JO 735: Professional Project
Required of all graduate broadcast concentrators. Production of a broadcast- ready portfolio project demonstrating strong writing, research and multimedia skills. Students choose a news topic to report, whether in the form of a video or radio documentary, a multimedia website, a series of video or radio reports or a multimedia app. Individual faculty members supervise this capstone project during the course of the semester.

COM JO 737: Journalism Internship
Student develops a portfolio of professional work while working in the field. The student works 120-200 hours per semester or summer at the internship. Comprehensive paper, employer evaluation, and portfolio required upon completion of internship. Credits: var.

COM JO 741: Multi-media for Science Communication
A hands on course in multimedia production, including website design and construction, audio and video production and photo essays, podcasts and more. As part of this course students will design and produce a science related web magazine that will serve a s a professional portfolio.

COM JO 743: Web Magazine
Students will contribute to and improve the web magazine, producing professional quality group portfolio.

COM JO 807: Advanced Journalism Research
A rigorous grounding in research and investigative methods ranging from interviews and records searching to computer-assisted reporting, analysis of data sets and use of the Freedom of Information Act. 4 cr.

COM JO 881: Science video Production
The moving image carries enormous power; whether shown in theaters, on television, on the internet or on our smart phones, video has the ability to change the world, as has been demonstrated time and again. this course is designed to examine the power of non-fiction video through the deconstruction of various films and videos, and serve as an introduction to video production through a series of production exercises culminating in a complete short film as a final project. While this course focuses on science, it will be useful for anyone interested in learning more about non-fiction video production.

COM JO 954: Directed StudyGraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
Faculty and students work together in a tutorial situation to produce a substantial project of mutual interest. 4 cr.